Teddy Talk: Creating, Collecting, Connecting

I had the girl and boy version of the plates...the girls got fashion plates and the boys got monster maker plates...I had both and probably tried to combine them somehow    :crackup:

Needle Finding Gnome.....hmmmm sounds good to me!!!  I run one of those magnetic needle holder wand things over the floor as soon as I think I've dropped a pin.  I wear uggs all year round so I'm ok, but I'm always worried about the pooches!

:hug:
~Chrissi

I just started a synthetic plush bear the other night, after the original post got me thinking about the fur I had set aside....so I'm in! 

Challenge for synthetic "plush" alone...or anything synthetic, like vintage upholstery and mini fabrics (?)
I have some really cool mini synthetics too

:hug:
~Chrissi

I want a ginormous stamp of all of my pattern pieces so I don't have to trace them out each time. ( I had one of those 'fashion plate" things as a kid...I want that for patterns..just mix and match the plates, run the crayon over it and it's done.) Everything else I like doing...it's the pattern placement and tracing that I just don't love.
Oh and  I want one of those little robot vacuums to suck up all of the Mohair clippings so I don't have to lug out the vacuum each morning...that's not so Magical..they have those now...but I want mine to bring me tea with honey as well. 

:hug:
~Chrissi

Cool!!!  Let us know what yah think as soon as you get them!!  :dance:

:hug:
~Chrissi

I went to the same sight today Daphne...they have a sample packet of the furs for $17.50...looks like amazing stuff 

Gotcha totally 

All the talk of plush made me pull out a piece I got a long time ago...I started working with it last night..all excited to try something different from my "norm".   :dance:

Disclaimer:
"Opinions recommendations and comments presented on TT are solely those of the poster. They do not represent the opinions of TT.com or the word of God on whether to buy or sell a particular material, product, or item.

Posters should be aware of any and all opinions and should consider and respect the source of any opinion, as opinion. Various factors, including personal or corporate preference, may influence or factor into a persons analysis or opinion.

All posters are advised to conduct their own independent research into individual post before making a decision. In addition, posters are advised that past post performance is no guarantee of future post direction."     :crackup: smile folks, life is short....you need a sense of humor in all areas of it!!!!
:hug:
~Chrissi

I'll play!  ....this sounds like an awesome way to share, post pictures, have some fun      Will this one have the same guides as the last swap you guys did??  I wasn't on TT then, but I did a quick search and it looked like fun! Just let us know!

Chrissi Catherwood - CatherWoods - mini, small, & medium

:hug:
~Chrissi

Here's what I'm thinking ...most small, mid sized and large corporations have a human resource and/or community involvement departments.  Most would MUCH prefer an emailed, printable coupon sent to them...less paper for them to deal with and distribution for them is a simple click to an email list.  All you have to do is make the initial call to get the contact person and the "ok" to send your pdf coupon (Coupon page containing web site info, bold headlines, ask to share with a friend, coupon needed for "special" door prize entry).  Instead of mass mailing in a community, run a single ad in the local paper with the admission coupon. Again, no printing and postage costs.
If the goal is to reinvent or rejuvenate the show circuit the coupon may not be the worst thing to get people in the door. New people who may not have even known of the existence to begin with.

:hug:
~Chrissi

It was asked:  "Ideas on how to get collectors back into the shows"

I'm new to this part of the industry so don't mind me if I say something  :doh: here. 
I never heard of a teddy bear show prior to using this site and subscribing to a teddy bear magazine.  I'm not living on the moon and my head's not in the sand with public art events;  I've been to a dozen sugarloaf's, food fests, musicfests, more art events in Philly than I can count.... where was I and how was I untapped?  Sugarloaf reached me by sending packets of admission coupons to all of the business complexes in the area.  I got a $1 off coupon via work.  I worked on a corporate campus that held 1,000s of people...that was just one campus in a densely populated business and residential area.

Is there a listing of all "the shows" somewhere...where/when are they...are they always in the same town, do they change locations.....how are collectors reached......? 

Anyone know Oprah??  We get on her favorite things list this year and we're set :crackup: (kidding ..but um ...anyone know Oprah)

:hug:
~Chrissi

My prayers and thoughts are with Winney's family, friends here and throughout who love and will miss her. I am newer to TT and did not get the chance to know Winney and that brings sadness.
I lost a dear friend in 2004. This was his prayer card prayer. For me it lifts memories of those we love who are no longer with us.

I'd like the memory of me
to be a happy one,
I'd like to leave an afterglow
of smiles when life is done.
I'd like to leave an echo
whispering softly down the ways
Of happy times and laughing times
and bright and sunny days.
I'd like the tears of those who grieve,
to dry before the sun
Of happy memories that I leave
When my life is done

:hug:

Thanks for all the nice comments about the cookies!!  They're fun to make for fam and friends, but are too tempting now with my diet restrictions!

B4B- I'm all for this being successful and plan to utilize, BUT I think that anything this new needs support in order to have a following. If artists use their mailing lists and collector contacts to formally "invite" collectors to share in this new bear site, it may in fact be worth it to all of our pocketbooks!  It's created and hosted by bear people AND has lower fees. Has a publication ever done a piece on B4B?  If not..could it be done, should it be done?  I think if we (in any area) put all of our eggs in one basket it sets us up for future issues....what's the plan if/when eBay isn't "the place" ?  Are eBay sales down, is the market flooded, is it harder to be "seen" ??  (I use eBay, I like eBay...this is just stuff popping into my head for discussion) 

:hug:
~Chrissi

Thank you!!  I think that these sites and suggestions will do the trick! 

I'm not really worrying about bear photos being nabbed (I'm not there yet... ), just what that extra step placed on some design elements.
Thank you again!!  (desk is fine) :crackup:

:hug:
~Chrissi

I'm a cotton headed ninny muggins (luv that movie Elf!) when it comes to this website lingo.  I've got 3 books in front of me and I can't find what I need in the indexes...because I probably don't know the "technical term".  I've googled phrases and gotten too many whack-a-doodle responses from those googles.... help...I'm starting to dent the desk where my head keeps hitting it    :crackup:

I need to know what it's called when you protect your site from copy or save as functions..... so that your photos, text etc, can't be "copied" or copy and pasted elsewhere.  When you do it correctly a person trying to do this will get a windows box that pops up and say the feature has been disabled or it's not allowed or something to that nature.  Anyone know what it's technically called??? I'm using frontpage if that helps.....

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! (the desk thanks you too....)

:hug:
~Chrissi

Bonnie, I'm a lot like you in that I'm a perfectionist.  I would be so darn critical of my work.
Nothing we can do will ever be "perfect".  My mom once told me that the amish quilters intentionally create a block or stitching that is imperfect, because only God can create something that is perfect.

"I noticed a significant improvement in my art when I  ____________ ." accepted that my talents were my own and always at my standards, without the need to be "perfect".  (I'm still about the details...he he he )

:hug:
~Chrissi

Kim did a post back in July where she said she'd been going through some medical stuff.  I hope she's ok...

:hug:
~Chrissi

Thank you all so very much for your kind words and wishes.  My husband read your posts with me and we are so touched. Today was a crummy kind of day, but I do believe that my Shelby is still with me..call me nuts but I heard her very distinctive bark 2 times today.  She was my "crafty bud"...she knew my studio as the "crafty room" and she had her own "crafty chair" (a big old recliner). She knew when I said those words she was going to plop on her chair and watch me at work. Today at my PC I heard that bark ...she's in there making bears with me still and that makes me smile.  The bear I'm just finishing up now will need to stay with me forever because it's the last bear Shelby and I made together. 
Thank you all again  :hug:
~Chrissi

Our menagerie is minus one today.  My good old girl Shelby was not herself for a few days and today she took a very sudden turn.  Within hours she became weak and unable to stand up for more than seconds, started drooling cold saliva, and her gums went white. She was unable to keep down water.  We sat with her outback in her spot in the shade right next to the shed and then took her to our vet.  He said the cancer was causing anemia...we knew her lungs were affected as well.
It's exactly 15 months to the day of her diagnosis of TCC**. We're happy that we got to spoil her rotten for that nearly year and a half....but we're still very very sad, heartbroken.  In May 2005 I only wished that she got to play in the snow again. Shelby's favorite thing in the world was always snow..the deeper the better.  She made it to winter snow, spring and a new summer.  She's the toughest dog we've ever known.  She beat out a disease that usually takes a dog out in weeks, a few months if they're lucky.  Of course we did what we could with her care, various medications to slow the tumor growth and we are very thankful we're so close to the University of Penn ....  It just sucks, sucks big time, we're heartbroken. Shelby was my first dog..I had dogs as a kid, but she was mine, my girl.  I just turned 20, still lived at home and had to call my folks (while they were on vacation) to tell them I just bought a puppy. She was a bandanna wearing, jeep loving, trouble finding pooch and I am going to miss her more than I can even imagine right now.

**TCC is a type of bladder cancer. Usually dogs are lost due to not being able to pass urine because of the tumor growth, not because of the "cancer" symptoms.  We're lucky to be near Penn where Shelby under went a new minimally invasive procedure that allowed her to urinate.  A small stent was used, it open up her tubes and allowed urine to pass...without that we would have lost her well over 6 months ago, when she was still able to play, run, eat and be happy.

This is Shelby this winter, after the stent had already been placed.  She's an amazing dog. because we were able to do this new procedure other dogs may be able to use it in the future too.  She was one of only 15 dogs to have this done...it's only done at Penn right now, but with further study it could be done more often.  That makes us feel better today too, that Shelby's case may help other dogs.

Thanks for all of the great feed back guys!!  Tami- Love the toes on your bears! (just saw Deb commented on too!)  It is completely addictive out here!

Judi- What paints do you recommend for the class??  I've been poking around online and a lot of sites say Golden..the class has another paint specified (Createx Airbrush Colors).  Which is going to to create best use and results or they comparable??  I'm a real "chemical exposure" nut..so I like what I saw on Golden's site so far...Createx doesn't give a label to read (toxicity stuff).  The Dyes Tami mentioned read as non-toxic as well.

Thanks for any additional info!!
:hug:
~Chrissi

Love the pictures...wouldn't mind seeing a "gazillion more"!!  The bench is so cool.  There are 2 artists in my area who do chain saw carving..it's pretty cool stuff! 

Wonder what a mohair puffin would look like...hmmmmm

:hug:
~Chrissi

Love Sassy for my mini's. Very good with anwering any questions you may have and stuff comes pacakged very nicely too.

:hug:
~Chrissi

I wouldn't even attempt to massacre a poor tiger or bear with my beginners splattering!!  :crackup:  But I think I may just look into the online class and be perfectly happy learning the skills with tshirts...this year will be "Merry Christmas here's a tshirt" :crackup: he he he   

I'm going to look into what's available in my area too. 

I do a lot of cake decorating with small detailing so I'm use to the sensation of a tool not touching the "canvas" as your working I'm sure it's not quite exactly the same.

Thanks Judi!

:hug:
~Chrissi

I love Alaskan nature shots and can't wait for more!!

:hug:
~Chrissi

Judi's amazing before and after tiger shots had me sharing with my family.  The tiger is blowing everyone away.  My sister had an airbrushing system from her college days that she used once or twice!  And she gave it to me!! :dance:  It looks brand new, in the box. Only problem is I have not a clue as where to begin.  I don't think my sister used it enough to know how to teach me anything really.

What's the best approach for the basics? What books do you suggest, classes, (do community colleges offer classes on airbrushing??), try to find a teacher??

I remember as a kid standing in the Surf Mall on Ocean City's boardwalk mesmerized by the guys airbrushing tshirts and jackets. I'd stand there forever and I always got a tshirt.

:hug:
~Chrissi

I just received this story and video clip from a friend.  It's such an amazing story and I thought I'd share.
:hug:
~Chrissi

Eighty-five times Dick Hoyt has pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged
and unable to control his limbs. "He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old.

"Put him in an institution." But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate.

"No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain." "Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!"

After a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that." Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!" And that sentence changed Dick's life.

He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.  "No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyt's weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor.

For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially.  In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?" How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still,  Dick tried. Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzz kill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

"Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own?" "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for the awesome feeling he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century." And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day. That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

Here are the videos....

very spiritual music type video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n6 … ed&search=

Tribute video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52rJd9G … ed&search=

I know that's what my hub hears too..... so I use this in emails I send to him   :crackup:

http://www.audiosparx.com/sa/play/port_ … d_iid.4741

:hug:
~Chrissi